Saturday, September 23, 2017

Bijou Funnies 1968 and 1973

Bijou was one of the first underground comics that appeared in the wake of Zap Comix #1 in 1968. While it wasn't as revolutionary as Zap or remembered as well, it was important in its own right. It was published and contained comics by Jay Lynch as well as Skip Williamson, Gilbert Shelton and Robert Crumb. All four had comics previously published in Harvey Kurtzman's HELP magazine, which was Kurtzman's last magazine as an editor after creating Mad Magazine and Humbug in the 50's. Below are complete issues of Bijou issue #1 from 1968 as well as the last issue, #8, from 1973. Issue 8 has a cover by Harvey Kurtzman and is in full color. It's an homage to the color Mad comic before it became a B&W magazine with issue 24 in 1955.

Jay Lynch and Skip Williamson recently passed away. They were supreme talents and their contribution to comics cannot be expressed enough. I met Skip Williamson back in the mid 90's at a comic convention in Georgia. I was a young foolish shy young man, but I was at least smart enough to get him to sign my copy of Bijou Funnies #2 as well as his own self-published comics at the time. I have a photo of us together somewhere. I remember I was an awkward weird guy and he rustled my hair before the photo to loosen me up. He was pure joy.